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City Pages BEST HAIRCUT
Award for 2004

Lyn-Lake Barber Shop

You'd think, based on the low, low price most barbers charge for
a haircut, that they aren't nearly as skilled as the black-clad
posseurs skulking around the chrome fixtures at that slick Uptown
salon. And that the cut you'll get won't be as au courant as the
one you'd get at the chain with the beyond-organic rep. Not so,
kids. We're sure that there are still some barbers out there who
send everyone home looking like either Moe or a Marine, but there
are plenty who will make you look every bit as spiffy as Mr. or
Ms. $75-Buys-You-an-Hour-of-Flattery-and-Hipster-Pretense. Like
Jayson Dahlman, dispenser of the $15 haircut.

In order to get a barber's
license in Minnesota, barbers need to know far more
than just how to coax a mop into a flattering shape. They need
to know the anatomy of the head in detail: the bones of the skull,
the arteries, veins, and muscles, and where they all connect. They
need to know what makes hair thick or thin, how it grows, how color
isn't the only thing that changes as hair grays, even how hair
differs from fur. If after 1500 hours of apprenticeship, an aspiring
barber fails the licensing exam, they can't try again for another
year. In the meantime they have to spend hundreds more hours practicing.
You still want to pay $55 for the place with the aromatherapist,
you go right ahead. It'll just be that much easier to get in to
see Jayson on a Saturday afternoon.